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Jesse St. James
Jesse St. James is an ifreet who lives with his uncle in Lima, Ohio. He attends Carmel Institute for the Performing Arts in Akron, Ohio, a school that exclusively serves fae. There he is also the star of Vocal Adrenaline, the school's show choir and the nation's reigning Show Choir National Champions for five consecutive years, of which he led to three. He also performs professionally with a theatre company in Cleveland and has worked with the Cleveland City Dance Company. He also semi-regularly performs live at the Corny Cornet. Jesse is a very dramatic, judgmental, arrogant, and, in some ways, especially fashionably, eccentric individual. He openly has relationships with men, women, and the many other variations that are only further increased by faekind, but he chooses not to subscribe to any labels. Biography Childhood : Jesse was born Jesse Adrian St. James at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York on April 7, 1995 to asingle mother, Talia Alma St. James. Talia is aligned with the Light Fae and a theatre actor, like her son, with considerable fame and wealth. She's successful enough to be known in the theatre circles, but not internationally recognized like Patti LuPone. She’s an ifreet, like her son. : Jesse never knew his father, only knowing that he was Dark Fae and a leanan-sidhe. He was raised to believe his father seduced and lied to Talia about his identity. When she found out his true allegiance, she left him, but at the time didn’t know she was pregnant. : Talia was happy and loved Jesse for the first year of his life, but she quickly grew to resent him. Not only did Jesse remind his mother of his father, but he kept her from the stage and from her social life. She couldn't do what she lived to do, be adored. So, shortly after his first birthday, Talia took Jesse to live with her Aswang brother, Bernard, in Lima, Ohio. : Bernard was a lazy alcoholic who had let his house fall into barely livable conditions, so Talia stayed around for a few months to oversee the restoration process and get Jesse settled in with a nanny. After then, she went back to Manhattan and her glamorous life. She sent generous amounts of money to ensure Jesse had a life of quality, and every Summer she would arrange for him to visit with her. These visits quickly deteriorated into him simply staying at her place with the nanny while she lived her life uninterrupted, but it led to Jesse being raised in the theatre. : By the time Jesse was old enough to enroll in school, Talia had become almost completely uninvolved in his life, assuming Bernard and the Nanny were taking care of everything. Several months before he turned six, she was issued a warning by the government to enroll her son in school within the next year or face charges of child negligence. She then took a greater interest in his life, though by now almost all emotional attachment was gone. She immediately enrolled him in private school, ballet, and voice lessons although he was a year behind. Then when he turned seven, she arranged for him to be cast as Tiny Tim in a production of A Christmas Carol at the Palace Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. : The woman playing Mrs. Crachet was Sheryl Bipson, a fairy aligned with the Dark who was over two millennia old. She took pity on Jesse and coached him through the production. Afterwards, she basically became Jesse's godmother. She contacted Talia and asked to be his nanny without pay. Talia didn't hesitate to accept. Sheryl fired the old nanny and took care of Jesse from the on. She raised him to be exceptionally talented and a happy young boy, coaching him in the theatre and with his voice, teaching him some Old Irish, and giving him much-deserved love. Jesse spent less and less summertime in Manhattan with Talia, and more and more with Sheryl in New Orleans. : Now that he was living on his sister's money, Bernard didn't do much. He just ate carrion, drank booze, and watched TV. But with Sheryl, he no longer had hired help to get him drinks. So when she wasn't around, he taught Jesse to mix drinks, starting at about the age of twelve. It wasn't anything harmful, he didn't force Jesse to get drunk or anything, he just taught him a skill that was inappropriate for a child so young. Adolescence : As a fifteenth birthday present to Jesse, Sheryl enrolled him at Carmel Institute for the Performing Arts. Shortly after, she fell ill. She was dying, so she returned to her ancient home in the Irish countryside. She didn't want Jesse to come, but he insisted. He spent that Summer with her until she died on July 17, 2010. : When he returned from Ireland, he decided to completely renovate the house. Talia had only made it livable, but Jesse was going to restore the old Victorian to it's original glory. Before Bernard had bought the house, the old ballroom and solarium had collapsed and been removed. Jesse rebuilt them and dedicated them to Sheryl who loved birds and the moon by designing them to reflect those themes. He also added a separate garage and a balcony from his bedroom overlooking the rear garden. To cope and out of the contempt for his mother that had grown over the years, he spared himself no extravagance. When the renovations were complete, Jesse adopted a female gray scottish-fold. Carmel Institute for the Performing Arts : Freshman Year (2010-2011) :: That September, Jesse started at Carmel as a theatre major with a minor in ballet and extracurricular with the show choir, Vocal Adrenaline . That's where he met Gray van Havens, a junior, a fairy with the Dark,an undeclared major with dreams of being a pop star, and the star of Vocal Adrenaline. She had led them totwo consecutive National Titles the years before. The combination of her talent, beauty, and kinship to Sheryl were irresistible to Jesse. His talent was quickly realized by the director who uses the Fall Invitational and Sectionals performances to showcase new talent. Jesse is chosen as Gray's duet partner for the Invitational. Gray remained skeptical of his abilities until they performed. The next day, they started dating. They performed together at Sectionals as well, and he outshone her. It put some minor tension on their relationship. :: When they returned to school from Winter Break, Jesse continued to outshine Gray and it was decided that their setlist for Regionals should feature them equally. They would have a duet and then each a solo. Gray was livid, but the pressure of being the school's and Vocal Adrenaline's star-power couple was too much for them to break up. So, while they appeared to be fine on the surface, their relationship had actually quickly turned toxic. :: On his sixteenth birthday, Jesse had his Gathering Ceremony. Having been raised more by Sheryl than anyone Jesse always felt more akin to the Dark Fae, so he asked his mother if he could choose the Dark. She was angry and defiantly refused, saying if he chose the Dark she would disown him and he would be out on the street. So Jesse reluctantly chose the Light, not yet ready to support himself. It was that day Jesse started making political connections and educating himself on the Dark in hopes that one day he would find a way to switch sides. :: Nationals were in mid-April and Chicago that year. With the performance equally centered around Jesse and Gray again, they easily won despite their relationship being a farce. Shortly after their win at Nationals, Jesse began an apprenticeship with the Cleveland City Dance Company for their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream— opened in June and lasted until mid-September. At the end of the year, Gray's military father was relocated to Texas. : Sophomore Year (2011-2012) :: When Jesse returned from his apprenticeship, he was celebrated as the sole star of Vocal Adrenaline. There wasn't much new talent that year, so the Invitational and Sectionals were dominated by group numbers with several small feature solos with only one full solo by him at Sectionals. With Vocal Adrenaline not being as demanding of him, Jesse was able to expand his interests and group of friends. Three things happened from this. :: First, he quickly realized he is one of, if not the most talented person in his fields and without Gray, there was no one who was sufficiently challenging to him. Craving competition, Jesse set up an underground fight club for people like him who needed decent competition, and for those who just needed some sort of physical release. However, since they were all artists, they can't have lasting wounds, so they arrange for a serket healing clinic to be on-call for them. :: Second, he discovered the Corny Cornet, a speakeasy turned piano bar in Downtown Lima. It was a fae-owned establishment and neutral ground, but also catered to human patrons. In his free time, he began performing alone there semi-regularly, an opportunity he rarely got wtih Vocal Adrenaline. Eventually he met the owners, Jolene and Bella Donna, sisters. In addition to owning the bar, they ran a talent agency, Donna Sisters Enterprises. Initially they had targetted him to be their next client and victim, but he quickly caught on to their scheme. When he confronted them, they were impressed, and the three of them quickly became dear friends. :: Third, he met Eric Taylor in a music theory class. Eric was a junior, an elf with the Dark, a musical composition major, and a violinist. Eric had been in the supporting orchestra for the dance program, theatre program, and Vocal Adrenaline and therefore had seen Jesse and had a crush on him for a long time. The began dating in October. Since Jesse was arguably the most popular student at Carmel, everyone knew about him and Eric. Eventually, Eric grew jealous of Jesse's talent and obviously bright future, whereas his own was incredibly uncertain. :: Carmel's Spring production was Sweeny Todd that Spring and Jesse was Anthony Hope. Out of jealousy, Eric marked Jesse with an elvish rune before his opening night in March and caused him to choke while singing Johanna. Jesse instantly realized what happened and confronted Eric during intermission. Jesse dumped Eric and had him thrown out. Assumably ashamed, Eric disappeared from school without a trace, leaving their break up to viscous rumors. Nationals were in late May and San Francisco that year, giving Jesse plenty of time to close with Sweeny Todd and prepare for the competition. He led them to the National Title for a second time. : Junior Year (2012-2013) :: Shortly after the school year ended, Jesse was cast as Link Larkin in his Cleveland theatre group's Fall production of Hairspray. He took the first few months of school off for the show, and his performance was lauded by critics across the Midwest. When he returned, his success was celebrated. He also met a trio of transfer students who are the new talent in Vocal Adrenaline, Giselle Clemens, Veronica Vega, and Lucy Quan. All three were juniors, theatre majors, harpies, Dark Fae, and best friends. He was unable to perform in the Fall Invitational because of the show, but he saw it and they were featured. They were better dancers than singers, but as a group they were incredibly formidable. Sectionals that year featured the trio in a solo A Capella number with a complex dance routine, a duet between Veronica and Lucy, and a solo by Giselle, who was easily the most talented of the trio. :: Jesse and Giselle began a fast-paced relationship after he saw the extent of her talent. However, she was just using him to elevate her status at Carmel. He found out at the Regionals competition and dumped her. He lied and said it was because she was a mediocre, second-rate talent who was holding him back. This led to her reputation to plummet and him being labelled a heartbreaker. Regionals was centered around him with one duet between him and Giselle. The tension in the duet almost cost them the competition. Nationals were in early April and New York City that year and. featured only him. He led them to a third win. However, while in New York, he made the mistake of visiting his mother who recently found out he was failing his core academics because he let his success get to his head. She told him she was pulling his tuition at Carmel until he got his act together. William McKinley High School : Jesse transferred to the local public school in Lima, McKinley High. Luckily, in the renovation two years ago, he had transformed two of the bedrooms into a small practice space. Now he wouldn't go completely out of practice without his dance classes. However, it wasn't a completely miserable situation. He knew The Morrígan had his daughter, Santana Lopez, attending the school as some sort of peace mission between the Light and Dark. He had also found out many interesting things about the head cheerleader there, Quinn Fabray. She came from Dark nobility and liked to break the rules by feeding off other fae from time to time. He befriended both of them, as well as two unexpected light fae, Sam Evans and Brittany Pierce . Presently : Without the pressures of a show choir and theatre program, Jesse easily got his grades up and Talia agreed to let him transfer back to Carmel in the Fall. He was soon cast in his first professional lead role as Melchior in his theatre group's upcoming Fall production of Spring Awakening. However, the father he never knew, Ciaran dé Danann, showed up at the same time and turned out to be the right hand of the Head of the Dark Fae Elders. The two had a confrontation and the man was thrown out of Jesse's house. : A week after his father's appearance, Jesse met Blaine Anderson, a young light fae. The day after they met, they had an impromtu sing-off at the Corny Cornet where Blaine san Bring Him Home from Les Misérables, and Jesse sang Hear My Call by Jill Scott. That same night, Jesse met again with his father. Ciaran offered a way for Jesse to turn to the dark, told Jesse that he had initially hired Sheryl but her feelings were still true, and taught Jesse how to use the grip of insanity. Ciaran then agreed to start meeting Jesse to train him. : The following Friday, Jesse and Blaine went on a casual date. They met at the lake claimed as the homewater of Brittany Pierce in Lima Forest, which was officially Dark Fae territory and largely the personal property of the Lopez family. The couple was attacked by a boraro, a frost giant, and another unknown fae. The attack nearly cost both of the boys their lives, but they managed to escape. : After that night, Jesse and Blaine continued seeing each other. Jesse eventually asked Ciaran to send a dullahan after their attackers, and he met up with his father for another training session. Without warning, on July 21, Ciaran announced that Jesse would be meeting the Morrígan that evening. He knew one of the Dark Fae Elders, or at least a representative for them would be present. What he did not expect was the attendance of High Elder Katarina Malori Asarov, his boss and arguably one of the most powerful fae in the world. : The meeting was going well until Jesse learned that Santana had left home just two days before to save Brittany from the dullahan his father had just used at his request. Overcome with the doubts that had been growing over the past few months, especially since he met Blaine, he abruptly left the meeting. Fae Type: Ifreet An ifreet— also spelled efreet, efrite, ifrit, afreet, afrite, and afrit— is a subclass of the djinn. They are malevolent and powerful beings with great wisdom that feed off adoration. They typically live thousands of years. When angry, and especially when hungry and/or feeding, an ifreet can distort their features. Their hair turns anywhere from gray to white, their eyes turn red, shades and parts of the eye affected vary depending on ferocity, and their facial features become elongated, pointed, and slanted. It is believed that this distortion is a glimpse of an ifreet's true form while in The Unseen. The Unseen : Djinn normally reside in a separate plane of existence called “The Unseen". The existence of this realm is kept highly secret and therefore few non-djinn even know of it at all, much less any significant details. What is known is that djinn’s powers are nearly limitless there, often able to conjure food. However, djinn are the only creatures that exist there. Since djinn cannot feed or mark each other, many often cross into the visible universe to feed and cause mischief. It is also believed that due to the chaotic nature of djinn, their world is in a perpetual state of anarchy. Origins : Ifreet are supernatural creatures in Arabic and Islamic cultures. They are in a class of infernal Jinn, spirits below the level of angels, noted for their strength and cunning. Powers and Abilities Adoring Touch : When there is no natural adoration present off which an ifreet can feed, much like a succubus can force attraction, an ifreet can touch someone and force them to feel adoration towards the ifreet. The reactions of this touch vary. Sometimes the target expresses the feeling sexually, other times it can be just a string of compliments, or an overwhelming desire to be friendly. A common side effect of the touch is a slight rise in body temperature. Teleportation : Ifreet can teleport in the blink of an eye. The distance ifreet can teleport is dependent on their individual level of power. However, all ifreet can teleport to places they cannot seen and have never seen. Most ifreet cannot only teleport themselves, but a few exceptional individuals can manage to teleport more, although it is still incredible difficult and dangerous. Unique Powers : Each ifreet has another power unique to each individual. Some can turn into animals or inanimate objects, others can manipulated the elements. It can be almost anything. Jesse's unique powers are as follows: :* Inspiring Aura ::: Jesse’s father is a leanan-sidhe , a sort of evil muse that causes the inspired person to go insane. Jesse's unique power is affected by this genetic link. He can cast a sort of aura of inspiration and make the people around him perform better. In some ways, it’s a mental link, because Jesse can send information into the people around him, whether it’s lyrics, notes, dance steps, dialogue lines. However, the information is not directly sent. It’s more as if his knowledge is leaking into the minds of those around him. However, he can choose who is does and does not affect. :* Grip of Insanity ::: Another power influenced by his father is that Jesse’s touch can not only force adoration into people, but it can also cause them to go insane. He can control the speed and degree by which the target goes insane. Weaknesses Enslavement of the Djinn : Ifreet are a class of djinn, and as such, they can be magically bound into a lamp or directly to a master through marking. :* Lamp ::: They can be tricked into a “lamp" through a variety of ways. The only ways they can be freed is if the person in possession of the lamp dies as a consequence of the deal made with the djinn, or by somehow destroying the lamp. While trapped in a lamp, djinn no longer have the need to feed, but still can in the rare occasion someone is trapped inside with them. When physically inside the lamp, their powers are the same as in the outside world. When being called from the lamp by a master, their powers are tremendously increased, reflecting their powers in the Unseen, in order to perform what appear to be wishes. The limitations of their power is unique to each djinn. Djinn also cannot be killed while trapped in a lamp unless someone manages to infiltrate the lamp and kill them from the inside. :* Marking ::: Djinn can also be controlled if marked. This can be almost anything, a bite mark, a brand, a scar, a bruise, a tattoo, etc. just as long as it’s personal to the marker or charmed. For example: succubi can mark djinn with hickeys; most animal-shifters can mark djinn with bites; species like dwarves and elves with ancient and magical languages can mark djinn with runes. A djinn is not free from a mark until the person who marked them dies. A djinn can be marked by multiple people. While marked, a djinn’s power is unchanged. ::: If the mark is in the form of a wound of some sort, such as a bruise or a bite, it will heal. However, djinn cannot unnaturally speed up the healing process through their own means. For example: suppose an ifreet gets bitten by an animal-shifter. The wound will heal in time, and while an ifreet can heal to the point of making the wound non-fatal, that will not take any time off the healing process. However, an ifreet can go about healing or removing a mark through outside means, such as a serket or magic. : While bound to their master, ifreet mostly have physical and mental autonomy and can talk back and be rude to their master, unless it goes in direct conflict with the master’s orders. For example: if the master commands the djinn to seduce someone, despite whatever natural emotions the djinn would feel, the djinn's emotions would change to seductive and aroused if it were necessary to fulfill the command. The djinn also cannot bring any direct harm to the master. Meaning, djinn cannot feed on or attack their masters in any way. However, they can indirectly plot to have the master killed, usually as an “unforeseen" consequence of the deal made with the djinn. Feeding/Healing As an ifreet, Jesse feeds off adoration. This can be done in a variety of ways: a compliment, mental or vocal; sexual, romantic, and platonic feelings; positive thoughts about him; an applauding crowd; and many other ways. It doesn’t have to be through direct contact, an ifreet just needs to be in the same room and focused on that person. The way an ifreet feeds is similar to how a succubus feeds. While succubi can only feed off sexual energy and ifreet can feed off almost any positive energy directed toward them, ifreet feeding is not as efficient. The amount of sustenance an ifreet gets from a single killing feed is about half what the average succubus would get. An ifreet also doesn’t regenerate as much as a succubus. While some succubi can grow back appendages from a good enough feed, the most an ifreet can do is make their wounds non-fatal. It doesn’t matter if they kill ten people, they physically can’t heal past that stage. Though the sensation of feeding largely varies from victim to victim, there are a few things that are constant. An ifreet feels euphoric and hot, but it also hurts in a sort of spiritual way. Many experience a sensation described as a searing tear into the soul. Occasionally, especially for the inexperienced, ifreet are unable to control themselves during sex and feed a little on their sexual partners. For most ifreet, it takes the combination of lust and love to lose control. Highly disciplined ifreet almost never lost control. When an ifreet feeds while experiencing lust and love at the same time, the victims often experience a different sensation. Love and ecstasy mix with the pain and euphoria, making it feel less harrowing and more erotic, similar to how pain in BDSM works. When an ifreet feeds to kill, it often appears to be a stroke. Occasionally it can appear to be a heat stroke, especially if the feed is done slowly with aid of the adoring touch.